Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.We first see Jonathan Bailey\u2019s magnetic Richard II picked out by a shaft of white light against a dark platform, sleek in his bespoke suit and velvet loafers. Grant Olding\u2019s music surges through the auditorium, Succession-like in its rippling grandeur, ready to propel Nicholas Hytner\u2019s fresh, fleet staging which styles Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy as a gripping modern account of power absolute and abused.Pinpointed against the dark, Bailey\u2019s Richard looks dwarfed by circumstance \u2014 and so it will prove. His king is a man born to rule but unfit for the task, confusing that condition for entitlement rather than responsibility. Privilege has left him brattish, impulsive and brittle \u2014 Bailey\u2019s movements are pronounced, chin jutting or limbs sprawling, as if he were performing the authority he hopes to project. At one point he rocks up with the crown in a plastic carrier bag.Hytner\u2019s staging takes the medieval world\u2019s problem \u2014 a divinely anointed king who rules badly \u2014 and refashions him into our own nightmare: a hyper-rich, arrested child who spins policy on a whim and considers himself beyond the reach of law or hindrance.As news of John of Gaunt\u2019s death is announced, Bailey lounges insolently on the hospital bed recently vacated by the old man, casually making the fatal pronouncement to seize the lands due to Henry Bullingbrook, Gaunt\u2019s banished son. That will prove the final straw for a country staggering under his misrule: the trigger for Henry to return to England and wrestle the crown from Richard\u2019s head.But what Hytner delineates so eloquently is that it\u2019s not Richard who is the greatest problem \u2014 it\u2019s power itself, in the shape of the crown. That golden circle tantalises everyone \u2014 eternal in shape; temporal in possession \u2014 and no one can live up to it. Bailey\u2019s Richard learns this keenly: his famous speech about the hollow crown is sardonic, but flecked with regret, and on surrendering his power he finds a grace and poignancy that had eluded him as king. Throughout there\u2019s a pathos beneath his showboating \u2014 he never really knows who he is. It\u2019s a journey deftly traced by Bailey and complemented step-for-step by Royce Pierreson\u2019s wonderful Henry: all watchful stillness, coiled strength and rough pragmatism. Henry will, after deposing Richard, be forever tormented by guilt. Necessary it may be; treason nonetheless.Around these two circle the wannabes and has-beens. Hytner and his cast are often very funny in their depiction of men strutting about or scrabbling for control. Here they\u2019re not courtiers but officials in suits, who bustle about with files of notes or plot together in bars. And beneath the comedy lie cold truths: the huge field-gun that accompanies Henry as he challenges Richard; the swift bullet to the back of the head for conspirators. The company bristles with clear, subtle performances, particularly from Christopher Osikanlu Colquhoun as a shrewd Northumberland and Michael Simkins as York, torn by conflicting loyalties to crown and country.Bob Crowley\u2019s set is a simple black platform thrusting into the audience and composed of panels, through which sets rise to change scenes swiftly. Hytner sends key exits and entrances through the watching crowd. The message is clear: Shakespeare\u2019s drama may deal with characters long gone, but the dilemmas it raises about power are still very much with us.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606To May 10, bridgetheatre.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.We first see Jonathan Bailey\u2019s magnetic Richard II picked out by a shaft of white light against a dark platform, sleek in his bespoke suit and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211992,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211990\/revisions\/211992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}